Railway passenger car



Oct. 11, 1949. w. FALL.

RAILWAY PASSENGER CAR Filed Feb. 22, 1945 33 @fi i Q FRESH AIR INLETS/ AH? OUTLET Illu l l REcmcuL/man Anz mLETs FIG 5 INVENTOR Wil i d llal L ATTORNEY Patented Oct. 11, 1949 RAILWAY PASSENGER CAR Wilfrid Fall, Haverford Township,

Delaware County, Pa., assignor to The Budd Company, Philadelphia, Pa., a corporation of Pennsyl- Vania Application February 22, 1945, Serial No. 579,208

1 Claim. 1

This invention relates to railway passenger cars, more particularly to an improved arrangement for housing air conditioning equipment.

Heretofore, it has been the practice in railway passenger car construction, in many instances, to house certain portions of air conditioning equipment, such as for example, a unit including a heating coil, a refrigerating coil and a circulating blower, in the roof portion of the car. Such equipment is relatively heavy and it has been necessary heretofore in making repairs or changing units to do so from within the passenger compartment, in which case, jacks and the like had to be placed on the carpeting in order to facilitate removal of the equipment. Also, it was necessary to remove the air filters from within the passenger compartment. One disadvantage in such servicing is that upon removal of the units or parts thereof oily cinders and dirt are scattered laibout the interior of the car which soil the carpeting and seat upholstery. The same is true as a result of the use of jacks and, also, asa result of the carelessness of the mechanics.

It is the primary object ofthe `present invention to provide a new and improved arrangement for railway passenger Vcars for housing air conditioning equipment wherein the same is. readily accessible and may be serviced from the vestibule of the car or removed without the necessity of the servicemen or mechanics entering the passenger compartment, thus also permitting service work while passengers are within the car.

With the above and other objects in view which Will be apparent from the following description, to those skilled in the art to which the invention appertains, the present invention consists in certain features of construction and combinations of parts to be hereinafter described with reference to the accompanying drawing, and then claimed.

In the drawing which illustrates a suitable embodiment of the invention:

Figure 1 is a fragmentary plan view of a rail car, partially in section, diagrammatically illustrating a portion of the equipment to show the general location thereof;

Figure 2 is a side elevation, partially in section, of the parts shown in Figure 1;

Figure 3 is a perspective View of the air heating and cooling unit of the equipment;

Figure 4 is a front elevation of the blower unit;

Figure 5 is a fragmentary perspective View of the interior of the housing arrangement, the equipment being removed therefrom; and

Figure 6 is an enlarged longitudinal section 2 through the housing for the equipment showing the equipment in side elevation but showing the various conduits which extend through the side wall of the housing.

Referring to the accompanying drawing in which like numerals refer to like parts throughout the several views, the air conditioning equipment includes a Iboxlike unit I which includes the heating and cooling coils (not shown) having various connections 2 on the wall thereof for connection with a plurality of conduits 3 essential for the operation of the unit, and a blower unit 4 which discharges recirculated and fresh air through the unit I.

The units l and 4 to be more fully described later are removably mounted within a casing 5 which is mounted within the space 6 between the upper deck 'I and the roof 8 of the car 9 and so that a portion of the same is directly over the vestibule I 0 of the car. The vestibule wall is designated by the reference Ina. The deck 'I Within the vestibule I0, is provided with an access opening II for the casing 5 which opening is normally closed by a door I2 which is hinged for downward swinging movement.

The casing 5 is pro-vided at its forward end with an outlet opening I3 (Fig. 5) having an interior perimetral seal I4 of suitable resilient material. Connected to this opening is a flexible conduit I5, such as a canvas shroud, which in turn is connected with a duct I6 which distributes the conditioned air to the interior of the car in any suitable manner.

The casing 5 is provided with rear end air inlet openings I'I and side air inlet openings I8 with which suitable air filters I 9 are associated for removal from within the casing through the access opening I I.

Within the casing 5 and extending longitudinally thereof are a pair of spaced rails 20, of Z-shape in cross section, which are secured to the upper side of the casing in such manner that the legs 2l face each other and are spaced down- Wardly from the upper :casing side and form the support for the conditioning unit I. Pairs of Z-shaped brackets 22 having the legs 23 of one pair facing the corresponding legs of the other pair are similarly disposed within the casing and secured to the upper side thereof rearwardly of the rails 20.

The conditioning unit I is provided at its ends with outwardly extending flanges 24 which when the unit is assembled within the casing are seated upon and secured by bolts 25 to the legs 2I of the rails 20. In this assembled position the 29 in turn being secured by bolts 3l to the rear.-

Ward side of the conditioning unit.

The conduits 3 extend through one side of the casing i5 (shown in Figure-.16) and are provided with removable couplers 32'.forremovable connection to the conduit connections 2 of the con# ditioning unit I.

In the operation of the apparatus, fresh outside air is drawn into the space 6 through roof inlets 33 and air is drawn into this space from the' passenger compartment 34 of the car through any desired'number of grills 35 for recirculation with the fresh air, the blowers 2l providing for this withdrawal of air fromv the outside and from within the passenger compartment. The fresh air and the air for vrecirculation is drawn by the blowers 21 through the lters into the casing and is then discharged bythe blowers 2l' through the'conditioning unitil' and. into the distributing duct I6. The airis thus thoroughly mixed and during its passage through the unit I is subjected to the desired conditioning treatment, whether it be heating, cooling or'humidification or combinations of ysuch treatments;V

Inasmuch as there are innumerable air conditioning andblowerunits yon the ymarket which are well known in' theart, the details thereof have not-been shownv in the drawings.

If it is desired'to replace the filters i9, the door I2 can be opened and the lters removed through the opening Il, thus avoiding the distribution of cinders, dirt and the like inthe passenger compartment. Also, servicing of the conditioning and blower units I and 4 canbe accomplished through the access opening I I.

If it is desired to' remove lorreplace the condi-- tioning and blower units rst, the bolts 25 and Sii-,are removed,thenthefblower unit 9 is moved forwardly or'rearwardlya sufficient distance for itsflanges 361to clear the legs 23 of the brackets 22 which enables it to be ylowered through the accessopening II, itbeing'understood/ that the opening II is of sufficient size `to permit this.

In removing the air conditioning unit l, it is only necessary to remove the bolts 25, disconnect the couplers 32 and move'theconduits 3 for'suicient Tclearance. The air conditioning unit is then moved rearwardly while raising its forward side sufficiently to permit the flanges 2 to clear the brackets 2.y By so moving theunit l it can then bev lowered through the `access opening into the vestibulev ID.

Obviously, since all servicing of the air conditioning apparatus, blower and lter units can be accomplished from the vestibule, this operation can be performed without soiling or injuring the interior of the passenger compartment and can be performed while a car is standing in a station and loaded .with passengers.-

It is to be understood that; formal changes may be made in the detailed construction and arrangement of the parts described without departingfrom the spirit and substance of the invention, the scope of which is defined by the appended claim;

What is` claimed is:

In a railway passenger car in combination with the usual car enclosure, a vestibule partition wall separating anl en'd'- vestibule from a passenger compartment, a ceiling below the roof of the car extending over the vestibule and a part of the passenger compartment, said partition wall at the top terminating atthe ceiling, wallmeans forming a chamber above the ceiling, air conditioning apparatus consistingfof a plurality oflseparable units housed in said chamber, said ceiling having an opening over the vestibule of a size to pass said unitstherethrough, a door for closing` said opening, slidebracket supports secured to the topwall of said chamber and" extending forward from above said opening' to the front end over the passenger compartment, said supports beingiso made as to receive a unit thereon when. introduced from the rear end andto permit itto be pushed' forward thereonv into they position of use, the

WILFRID FALL;

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the 'y le ofthis patent? UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 425,493 Cleveland Apr. 15,118905 1,739,777 Bernbaum et al. Dec. 17, 1929-E 2',033,069' Hagen et al. Mar. 3, 19361 2,123,076 Madden July 5,1938 2,155,632 Anderson Apr. 25, 1939 2,158,966 Hemming et al. May 16, 1939/ 2,179,873 Anderson Nov. 14,1939" 2,183,387 Anderson Dec. 12, 1939 2,183,498- Anderson Dec. 12, 1939' 2,193,153 Anderson` Mar. 12,` 1940 2,296,725 McEwan" Sept; 22', 194:2'I 

